Re: New FCP X, new MacBook Pro's, no other new hardware
 

It is very frustrating. I started with an Apple ][ in 1978, got a "Fat Mac" 512 in 1985. Not interested in switching to Windows, and my Macs are still doing everything I need. After a number of years without doing much video, have started some projects with several hundred hours of legacy DV/HDV that I shot between 2001-2011. Have played with the FCPX free trial, but at this point I'm sticking with legacy FCP because I'm so familiar with it.

For awhile I just used my MacBook Air which has an i7 and reasonable performance for a laptop. But the lack of ports was a problem, so I switched to a 2012 base model Mini that I've had for a few years. Looking to improve render times, I didn't want a Trashcan or iMac and the current Mini is pretty underwhelming. So I ended up getting a used 2012 i7 2.6ghz quad Mini Server.

Have been very happy with this machine, it cut my render times in half. Geekbench score is the same as the top of the line 2016 13" MacBook Pro and 50% faster than the current (2014) top of the line Mini. The weakness is the HD4000 graphics chip, but that doesn't matter for my legacy software.

Very disappointing that Apple seems to have abandoned the Mini, it's going on 3 years with no update and there are no quad core models. I should be fine for another year or two with what I've got, and guess I'll just have to survey the landscape at that point to see what makes sense.